Building and sustaining restorative community trust and engagement: the Co-Researcher Activation Network

After identifying substantial trust gaps between our university and neighboring community, we developed the Co-Researcher Activation Network (CRANE) to cultivate restorative engagement through ongoing transformational relationships. Informed by the Culture-Centered Approach, CRANE is a network of community member groups who identify local health concerns, develop research questions, and generate community-driven solutions. Organized by place rather than interest, groups are systematically created within geographic areas. The model focuses on engaging community members as “co-researchers,” whereby community members play an active role and share in the decision-making process through a collaborative and interdependent relationship with the research team. Using RE-AIM domains, we applied convergent mixed methods to test the effects of CRANE and to identify factors associated with fidelity and sustainability of the model. From 2022 to 2023, we convened 21 co-researchers in three groups that met bimonthly. Groups reflected age, racial/ethnic, economic, and educational diversity. Co-researchers’ perceptions of university researcher credibility (trustworthiness, expertise, and caring) significantly increased during the project. Five factors contributed to success: regular, audience-centered communication; small groups; gender segregation; scheduling flexibility; and community meeting spaces. Challenges included hiring issues, travel limits, low technology acceptance, transportation obstacles, and participant payment problems. CRANE is a blueprint for community engagement that honors community members and their expertise, strives for equitable partnership, and moves the needle on metrics of trust. The theoretically-grounded, co-researcher model can not only build but sustain restorative community trust and engagement. A co-researcher network that actively involved community members in decision-making throughout the course of research cultivated restorative trust and engagement through transformational relationships.